Seoul , South Korea -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- President Barack Obama arrived in South Korea on Sunday for a three-day trip centered on an international nuclear security summit in Seoul .

He flew into Seoul , where he is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak .

Top officials from 54 countries , including China and Russia , will attend the summit meeting on Monday and Tuesday .

But its message of international cooperation has been overshadowed by North Korea 's announcement last week that it is planning to carry out a rocket-powered satellite launch in April .

South Korea has said it considers the satellite launch an attempt to develop a nuclear-armed missile , while the United States has warned the move would jeopardize a food-aid agreement reached with Pyongyang in early March .

President Lee has already said he will use the summit to drum up international support against the actions of his northern neighbor .

North Korea says it has a right to a peaceful space program and has invited international space experts and journalists to witness the launch .

North Korea 's state-run Korean Central News Agency -LRB- KCNA -RRB- cited a spokesman from the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea as denouncing the South for working to turn the summit `` into a platform for -LRB- an -RRB- international smear campaign '' against the North .

The North has a right to a nuclear deterrent and to conduct a `` satellite launch for peaceful purposes , '' the committee 's statement said , and will take `` counter-measures '' if the South stirs up international criticism of its actions .

Against that tense backdrop , Obama is scheduled on Sunday to visit for the first time the demilitarized zone that splits the Korean Peninsula in two .

He will also meet with some of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea , two of his top national security advisers said Tuesday during a conference call .

Although Obama himself has not been to the demilitarized zone during his two previous trips to South Korea as president , Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a visit to the area in 2010 .

And Obama 's predecessor , George W. Bush , used binoculars to peer into North Korea from a sandbagged bunker on the southern side of the border in 2002 .

The date of Obama 's visit '' is virtually two years to the day '' since the sinking of the South Korean warship , the Cheonan , which left 46 Southern sailors dead , said Daniel Russel , director for Japan , South Korea , and North Korea at the U.S. National Security Council .

South Korea says a North Korean torpedo attack was to blame for the ship 's sinking . The North has denied the accusation .

In a dramatic reminder of the U.S. military presence in South Korea , an American F-16 fighter jet crashed Wednesday near Kunsan airbase on the western coast of South Korea .

The jet 's pilot safely ejected before the crash , and no casualties were reported , said Maj. Eric Badger , public affairs officer of the 7th Air Force .

Seoul 's nuclear summit will be the second after Obama hosted the first meeting in Washington in 2010 . He initiated the biennial summit after presenting his vision of a nuclear-free world in Prague in April 2009 .

The official agenda will deal with nuclear terrorism and how to secure the world 's nuclear material .

Although North Korea is not on the agenda , it is likely to be discussed on the sidelines .

Pyongyang announced this month it would carry out a `` satellite launch '' in mid-April to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Kim Il Sung , the country 's founder .

Using ballistic missile technology , however , is in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874 and against a deal struck with the United States earlier this month that it would not carry out nuclear or missile tests in return for food aid .

Pyongyang has said it will see any critical statement of its nuclear program as `` a declaration of war . ''

Concerns about Iran 's nuclear program , again not on the official agenda , will also be discussed in bilateral meetings between leaders .

CNN 's Paula Hancocks , Shruti Pant , Jethro Mullen and Bob Kovach contributed to this report .

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The South is running a `` smear campaign '' against its neighbor - North Korean state media

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South Korea is preparing to host a high-profile nuclear security summit

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U.S. President Barack Obama will be among more than 50 heads of state at the meeting

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He will visit the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea for the first time Sunday